Swimming pool: la piscine du danger

A little old school 80's slasher, a little post-Scream modern slasher, mix, add water and you get something like this killer-in-a-mask slasher. Very formula in a slightly different setting, lots of pretty teens, this time at a large indoor pool (hence the title) are being stalked. And this time an English language German movie filmed in the Czech Republic with an international cast of young pretty actors.

It was played straight, and built some nice tension which was nice like the slasher pics of old A good amount of blood, but light on the gore and only one very brief flash of nudity are the bad traits it has inherited from the post-Scream generation of slashers.

A sequel is coming up. I assume that will also be set at a pool (since it being called Pool 2), or perhaps the same pool. Add a little gore and T&A next time around folks.

If you enjoy competently made slasher films that don't stray too much from the formula then you should find this a pleasant 90 minute diversion.

If I could rate the killing-scenes alone, I would probably give an 8, they are really awesome, with an original and inventive use of constantly the same weapon. Unfortunately these scenes had to be patched together by some story, and here this movie fails utterly, the story is as flimsy as cardboard and full of improbabilities. They made it into a who-dunnit (which at least makes you sit the whole thing out), but if you expect a serious motivation from the at last revealed killer you'll be disappointed: the script provides him with a lame self-pitying whine that hardly explains his totally disproportional killing-spree (but I guess we can't expect a psychopath to be rational anyway!).

Another problem: the guys and girls are all equally unsympathetic, all wise-cracking party-animals, loudmouthed and wannabe cool (the guys) and lascivious (the girls), so you couldn't care less if any of them got to be killed anyway. The acting is over-all below par (even from nowadays famous James McAvoy, how he got involved is a mystery in itself!) and most of the actors talk English with heavy accents (apparently this is a German movie but for some reason shot in Prague). And for a movie about wild and hormone-driven teens that constantly talk about sex and are illegally partying in a desolated pool it's surprisingly prudish, with most girls wearing a one-pieced bathing-suit and all the guys colossal XXL-sized trunks.

In conclusion: just watchable for the awesome killings!

Group of college students about to graduate hold a secret party at a pool after hours, but things wouldn't be the same without a mysterious killer stumbling upon the scene to kill everyone. Some style, some excitement, some seriously sexy moments, some creative death sequences, and a few scary scenes. Much better then expected.

At a German college, wealthy student graduates (of various nationalities) break into an upscale health resort for a final get-together little realizing it will be lights out for most of them when a masked killer with a machete crashes their party. The acting is uneven, the accents (British, Aussie, German, etc.) take some getting used to and the ending is awful, but this is still one of the best of the recent slasher movies. The setting is different, the director makes good work of his locations, there are a few creative death scenes (the best involving a water slide) and it's thankfully devoid of that annoying post-SCREAM sense of self-referential humor. I also enjoyed the performance of (and dialogue given to) Elena Uhlig.

Score: 5 out of 10

The Pool might not be the most original horror film out there, but it has much more to offer than it's lousy rating on here and uninspired DVD artwork might suggest.

On one hand, you have early roles by stars James McAvoy and Isla Fisher, but on the other, you have a mostly engaging and well shot slasher tale that's certainly no more incomprehensible than most of its contemporaries. While there are a few detours into 90's slasher style camp and pop psychology, The Pool mostly has a much more European giallo meets 80's slasher feel with bright colors, interesting shots, and some really nasty death sequences.

There are definitely a fair share of cringe-worthy moments and you'll definitely wish the killer would shut up once they've been unmasked, but the few inventive death scenes and moments of suspense make up for any of the surface flaws.